The Good Neighbors Community Kitchen and Food Pantry provides healthy hot meals and groceries to those in need in East Providence and neighboring communities. They have two locations: Riverside and Rumford. Both locations offer a food pantry with a selection of shelf-stable items, fresh produce, and bread. Meat, dairy, and toiletries are available at the Riverside location.
The Riverside location’s Community Kitchen offers hot sit-down meals in their comfortable dining room as well as meals to go. These meals are free and available to everyone, every weekday. The dining room also offers a space where members of the community can socialize and learn about additional services from Good Neighbors, such as free laundry service and free access to computers and printing. There are also organizations that visit regularly so guests can connect with other resources available in the community.
Good Neighbors offers additional food-related services: The Food Delivery program brings hot meals and groceries to homebound and other vulnerable East Providence residents as the waiting list allows. Food4Kids supplies an additional bag of food to all Food Pantry guests with school-aged children during the summer months while school is out. The Project Fresh program teaches healthy eating habits and provides fresh fruits and vegetables. The Thanksgiving and Holiday Program lets guests choose additional food for holiday meals.
As many as 30% of East Providence households are likely to experience food insecurity at least once a year. In 2025, Good Neighbors cooked and served or delivered 28,457 hot meals from their Community Kitchen. Through their Food Pantry, they provided food for 4,838 individuals from 1,567 households. These groceries provided enough food for 160,755 meals! This work is made possible with Good Neighbors’ very small staff, more than 130 dedicated volunteers, an active Board of Directors, and countless donors and community partners. Good Neighbors has served Rhode Islanders experiencing food insecurity for 35 years.
Please join us in assisting the Good Neighbors Community Kitchen and Food Pantry by donating food or money, volunteering, or hosting food drives or fundraisers. Check out the annual All Fired Up! Community Kitchen Cook-Off fundraiser each fall, a collaboration with the East Providence High School Culinary Program. Their website is www.goodneighborsri.org.
